Saturday, April 21, 2007

Computer Settings

I customize my computer. I have a fountain pen cursor, one "wait" that is a scroll unrolling and rolling up, the other is Cinderella and her Prince dancing. I change them, as I change the desktop color (creamy, pale pink, pale blue). When I was writing HeartMate I had a "wait" of some blue-green rolling dice, no wonder that T'Ash had bloodstone Divination Dice.

Just finished changing the sounds for this year. I keep them the same for months/years, then grow tired of them and change. I have a LOT of old "themes" I brought over from my old computer that still make me smile, and some gaming companies made desktop themes, so I have WORDS like "I can help you no further, noble knight."

For years my Windows Exit was "The purpose in my life was to bring YOU to this point," which also came from a game. Then there's "Zounds!" or "Mucked up, too bad," to let me know something is Not Quite Right.

And I'm feeling better now, smiling. This house sitting is not going well because I'm having a terrible time sleeping in a different bed. I woke up at 3am and didn't want to go before the paper was delivered (it was late yesterday, I left at nearly 6). And am consequently quite grumpy in the mornings, and getting to the writing later, and blog later, and email later, etc. A week and a half more.

So whatever will get you going, do it. If you need a different scheme for writing v. other work/play, customize it. It can be part of your writing ritual like music or candles. Once, every time I closed a program it was to applause.

And if I've talked about this before, excuse me. The night wasn't good, but the sentiment stands. Do anything that might possibly make you feel good about writing.